110 BENULA AND FARLEY, 1920 



And on the 6th Farley provided its one thrill 

 of the season, and a real good thrill it was, and 

 ought to have been even better had I been 

 cleverer. Merton Barker went to the West Hill 

 with John and got a decent stag (alas ! his only 

 one this season) of 14 stone 4 pounds, and a fair 

 head of 7 points. Susan and I were with Thow 

 in the wood and saw quite a good beast on the big 

 moss above the saw-mill; he was in quite a favour- 

 able position, till the felling of some trees about 

 half a mile from him frightened him and moved 

 him farther west. He then turned north, and 

 though I tried to cut him off he was too quick and 

 got round us, and then got our wind and disap- 

 peared into the east beat. We saw the quite fresh 

 tracks of other stags but could not find the beasts 

 themselves, and by 1.30 we were quite exhausted, 

 and very glad of our lunch which we took on the 

 top of the rocks facing the wood on its north side. 

 I told Thow to have a good spy when he had 

 finished his lunch, as you get a great view from 

 these rocks looking west and north over most of 

 the forest. Susan and I had just finished our 

 smoke after lunch, and I was just thinking of 

 making a move, when Thow crawled round the 

 rock behind which we had been lunching and said 

 there were three stags coming in as fast as they 

 could from Erchless, and seemingly coming up 

 the pass just beneath us so as to gain the shelter 

 of Farley Wood. He had watched them for 



